Lows in the fifties! A nice break from the rain/steambath alternation we’ve seen lately. Time to catch up on some yardwork.

A week ago Thursday, we finished the first trip of my sabbatical, our annual “School’s out, hit the road” adventure. The girls and I traveled to southern Utah, which I’ve been wanting to visit for years, visiting all the major parks: Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We flew to Vegas, rented a minivan, and drove our loop from there. Our trip was thirteen days, with a day of travel on each end, staying in hotels and rented apartments. Everything went well: no airline foolishness, the girls traveled well, we enjoyed hiking and sight-seeing, and most of the places to stay Erin picked were great. Bunches of pictures on Erin’s flickr, and bunches more to come.

What’s next? Not sure. I have a conference in July, and then a beer trip with Jeff and Thomas. The girls are going to Michigan with my in-laws while I’m gone. We have a short camping trip planned in early August; maybe we’ll tack a week or so on Lake Superior to the end of that.

Around the house, I’ve been doing a lot of miscellaneous work lately, much unplanned. Last week Erin spilled a half-gallon of milk in our Subaru. D’oh. I vacuumed out as much as possible with our wet-dry vac, then rented a carpet cleaner to do the rest. At least the spill was confined, for the most part, to the front seat. I decided to make the best of it and clean the whole car top to bottom, taking out the kids’ car seats and giving those a good scrubbing too. So far, so good: the car doesn’t smell bad at all, and nobody’s spilled anything in yet, either. More recent housework: find out what was jamming our disposer. The answer: a dime. I had to yank the disposer, but I got the dime out, and the disposer still works.

I also rounded up a bunch of electronics for disposal at our local recycling facility. This included a bunch of old hard drives. I formatted most of them with Darik’s Boot and Nuke. A couple more I couldn’t get to work required other means. That’s part of a larger, “must clean the basement” project which will surely continue.

Lots of rain here lately. Our strawberries fared poorly this year, with many rotting on the vine, but we still got a few good bowlfuls out. Not enough to make jam, though. The weeds in the garden are pretty crazy, as it hasn’t stopped raining long enough for us to do anything about them. Heck, I tried to mow on Saturday, and only got half the lawn done before rain started. Maybe I’ll get the rest done today. No tomatoes yet… plenty of greens, though, and surprisingly our lettuces are still tasty. We brought a bunch to a dinner party last night and were pleasantly surprised to find they weren’t bitter at all.

Now to continue reading and catching up on parenting and other things!

We’re ready.

We have two pumpkins growing in a tree! (Closeup here.) About four vines volunteered from the compost pile, this year, and we let them grow. We got a volunteer butternut squash, a gourd, and several pumpkin vines. I hope they are sweet pumpkins: we have a bunch ripe and more green. On the other hand, our tomatoes are pretty much done–a little earlier than we expected–though our chard and kale are humming along nicely. It was a strange year for kitchen gardening.

Yesterday morning Erin and I ran the Tevar 5K, a benefit for a local breast cancer charity. I pushed the girls in the double stroller. Erin wanted to run under 10:00 pace; we got done in 30:45, or 9:54/mi. It was nice to run as a family. I was very pleased by the turnout. A few years ago, I ran the race and almost nobody was there. It was much better organized this time. About 150 runners and some walkers and bikers too.

After the race, we walked across the square to the farmers’ market. The growing season is winding down, but the Amish vendor we really like had beautiful stuff, as usual: sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, green beans, and pumpkins. And the local meat vendor is selling pork now. Last night was the potluck at our CSA. Amazing food there, too, and fall greens are in full swing. We’ll keep eating veggies like crazy the next month or so.

Yesterday: rainy, breezy, cold. Today: sunny, cool, crisp. Yep, it’s fall.

Amelia really wants to stand up and walk. She’s pulling herself up on everything that will allow it: furniture, my legs, toys, the refrigerator, her sister (much to Madelyn’s chagrin). Even though she didn’t crawl until a few months after Madelyn, I won’t be surprised to see Amelia walking at about the same time (one year). And she’s really trying to talk, too, babbling like crazy and gesturing a lot too.

This summer I made the decision to avoid over-preparing for Fall courses. I’m afraid I overdid this, and ended up under-preparing. (Over not over is under. Right?) While I’m not behind, and things are going well in my classes, I’m not as far ahead of the game as I like to be. And my book order went in even later than usual. So this week, when book order information landed in my mailbox, I set aside some time to get Spring class preparation off the ground. I completed book orders for all three classes. And I plan to recycle heavily from previous preps.

I finished my application for sabbatical leave Friday: I’m asking for leave all of AY2010-11. The word is most, if not all, requests for one year leave are approved. I hope so. Erin and I have been saving diligently, and we’re starting to firm up our travel plans. On the research front, I plan to keep working on my current projects: (1) standards for improvement of English studies web sites, boosting my programming skills and knowledge of metadata as needed; and (2) converting some conference presentations into articles. I also hope to (3) return to the ease book project.

Today: grading, hanging out with the girls, reading. And it’s a good day to make a pot of soup.

5:50am: Get up and say good-bye to my parents, who are finishing a five-day visit. Make coffee. Medicate cat.

6:40am: Drive to Good Hope for 5K race.

7:00am: Race begins. 65 entrants. I am the second to last registrant.

7:22:17am: I finish (7:11/mi). First half-mile too fast. I am the second across the line.

7:35am: Plan carpools for a race next week.

8:02am: Leaving Good Hope, NPR is playing Weekend Edition Saturday, which I haven’t listened to in years.

8:20am: Help Erin get Madelyn ready for farmers market. Coffee. Finish Madelyn’s poached egg.

8:55am: Shower while Amelia watches. Head out to farmers market on bike: but rain. Abandon bike for Subaru.

9:20am: Roll into farmers market. Check out the FIG childrens’ tent, where Erin, Madelyn, and others are set up. Buy bread, tomatoes, and a trinket for Madelyn. Ask a couple vendors what they’ll have the next week. Watch dismantling of facade on arts center.

10:20am: Rain picks up. Vendors begin to leave. We do too, after buying a gift.

11:40am: Return to the house. Amelia goes down for a nap. Madelyn asks to watch a video. Crop, tag, sort, and upload pictures to Flickr. Erin goes to the store.

1:10pm: Play Dora bingo with Madelyn. She wins. Twice.

3:00pm: Triangle drill soccer, since only three showed up. No cleats, so all of us fall constantly.

4:05pm: After an hour, I’m worn out. Time for a slow bike ride home.

4:25pm: Drink water and beer on the back patio. Erin cleans strawberries for jam-making. We talk about sabbatical. Amelia hangs out in her bouncy thing. Madelyn orbits the picnic table, usual spaz mode.

5:20pm: Pick strawberries with the girls.

6:20pm: Duck inside and upload more pix to Flickr.

7:10pm: Finish strawberry picking. Madelyn dumps berries over her head. Deal with three-year-old meltdown.

7:20pm: Talk to the parents: their 12+ hour drive is over.

7:50pm: Erin heads to a friends’ house to feed their cat. Help Madelyn with bath, then get in with her. Hand off Madelyn to Erin when she returns.

8:40pm: Cut greens while it’s still twilight.

8:50pm: Pluck a fussy Amelia from bed and try to get her back to sleep. Fail. Cuddle her until Erin is done putting Madelyn to bed.

9:35pm: Make gigantic salad. Eat a bunch of leftover barbeque.

10:10pm: Check WIU web site and find that BOT “approved tenure for 29 faculty.” Assume that’s me. Woo tenure. Post something on The Book.

11:01pm: Press Publish on this post. Then water and sweet, sweet sleep.

• Jan 5: Madelyn starts the Big Girl sleep plan. I’m happy to say this continues; the Bee is pretty easy to put to bed now.
• Feb 21: I get an awful flu bug, missing classes and losing eight pounds in less than a week.
• Mar 10: A misstep down the stairs, and I sprain my Achilles, putting a serious kink in my running. In the long term, this is a good thing; since then I’ve been swimming and biking pretty regularly and my fitness is much better balanced.
• Apr 28: Our new graduate curriculum is approved. Bye-bye to periodic literature courses; hello to writing studies, theses or exams for everyone, and individual programs of study.
• May 15-25: Erin, Madelyn and I enjoy a great vacation in Wisconsin and Michigan.
• Jun 5: Strawberries! Our yard is full of ‘em. We enjoy ice cream, jam, and strawberry pie.
• Jul 22: The awful ugly counters come out of our kitchen.
• Aug 20: My release time technology work ends. I don’t miss this one bit.
• Oct 3: Jeff and I get the contracts for From A to <A>. (Essays are due tomorrow, 1/1/09. One step closer.)
• Oct 27: Amelia is born.
• Dec 19: Our power is knocked out by an ice storm. We spend a night at a friends’ house; the following day I spend 18 hours making up for lost grading time.

All in all, a fine year. Thanks, 2008; more like you, please.

Fortunately our power came back on Saturday afternoon. But as we put Madelyn to bed after the daal party (again at Shazia and Rizwan’s), I realized the gas had stopped working. Oops. I lit the kerosene heater and stayed up until waiting for Ameren. About 1:45am a serviceman arrived. The gas regulator had frozen. It didn’t take the Ameren dude long to fix it, relight the pilot on our water heater, and ensure our stove and heater were working. And he was nice and very tolerant of my sleepiness. I think I fell asleep at 2:30.

Add this all up, and much of my grading for the end of the semester–two graduate classes, a total of 17 students–was compressed into one day. Guess it’s yesterday now. I didn’t have time to comment on essays, and I had forgotten to ask the students (as I usually do in graduate classes) to preface their essay with a few paragraphs which situate it in terms of their larger work. Last night I drove the grade sheets to campus around midnight then went to bed.

My parents got here today. Amelia is obliging with smiles galore, and Madelyn is happy too. There’s another storm coming tonight. We’ll see if we need that kerosene heater again. For now, I’m very thankful for generous friends, quick response from our utilities, safe travels for my mom and dad, and the coming of a very, very needed night’s sleep.

I’m glad Fay isn’t expected to exceed 80mph, ’cause this three day forecast basically takes her from my brother’s backyard to visit Erin’s family in Jax, just north of the grandparents and Gainesville, then toward my friends in the panhandle. Though I imagine everybody’s got the batteries and plywood already, since hurricanes come annually or more often in the Sunshine State now.

Erin and Madelyn are in Colorado visiting Aunt Dee with Erin’s mom. So I’m trying to make the most of my solo time. Today, however, is a bit of a day off.

I ran a 5K this morning: 22:10 (7:09/mi) which is a personal best. Flat course, no wind, and decent weather. After I returned home, I mowed the front lawn and weeded (pic at right). Things are looking better. I’ll finish up tomorrow; by noon I was soaked, tired, and ready to quit for the day. But not before I got a little sunburned. I came in, showered, closed the windows and many of the blinds, and turned on the air. Sitting in a dark house, in the air conditioning, feeling the sunburn under my shirt reminds me of being in Florida, at Bits & Eric’s lake house or in the Keys when I lived there.

Our little homebrew club met today, and I shared some of my pale ale. Dennis poured a very nice California Common, and Jeremy and Bob shared a Samiclaus clone. Afterward, I went next door and listened to some country/folk music for about an hour. On my way out of there, I saw David Banash walking across the square. Took off to catch him before getting all my stuff buttoned up. Bad move. I dropped my cooler, which promptly opened and ejected beer bottles all over the place. Oops. At least I didn’t cut myself picking up all the broken glass.

Embarrassment aside, It was nice to catch up with David, since we’ve been in our own little worlds for the most part this summer. Of which, there’s a month left…